♥Japan 2014! Trip Report → Day 12 (Hakone Adventure)♥

 

Hello everybunny! :D The day 12 trip report is super exciting because we went on a day excursion to a place called Hakone, which is south of Mt. Fuji.♪ We decided to get a 'Hakone Freepass' which includes the round trip from Shinjuku station, and two days of unlimited travel on certain modes of transport in the Hakone area. The only extra costs are the limited express tickets, from Shinjuku sta. - Hakone-Yumoto sta. and Hakone-Yumoto sta. - Shinjuku sta., which give you seat reservations and allow you to take the express train.♪ At Shinjuku station, you need to go the Odakyu part, not JR.

 

Tickets!♥

 

The train is called the 'Romancecar' ww Adorable.♥

 

Here comes our train!♪ There are actually a few different types of 'Romancecar', they each have a different design.

 

When the train pulled in, it was quickly cleaned and...

..the seats rotated! It was so cool! The train was also really clean! It really put the public transport in the UK to shame ahah. Not that the transport in Tokyo didn't already put it to shame, I mean, the trains actually turn up in Japan www

 

Our seats had pull out trays, handy!

 

It looked a bit odd at first, I was worried I'd break something by accident, but it was simple. :3

 

Another thing that was awesome was the amount of leg room, Josh was so happy www

 

Doesn't it look fancy? After a little while, a staff member passed through the carriage selling snacks! And not just any snacks but...

 

..Ekiben!♪ It was Romancecar shaped too, so cool! ww If you're not familiar with Ekiben, they're a type of bento that you get on trains & at train stations!♪ Many contain local specialities.♪ Josh and I both got Romancecar Ekiben.♥ Jen got a slightly bigger Ekiben I think, it looked like it had more variety inside than the train ones.

 

-chu-♥ We made them kiss www

 

 

Scenery!♪

 

Ekiben & grape soda, yummy!♪ We were travelling just before lunchtime, so it was a good time to get some food before we got to Hakone, rather than trying to find somewhere there for lunch.^^

 

It came with napkins and chopsticks.♪

 

Woah check it out!!

 

Prawn, inari pockets, onigiri, noodles, and some fried things too! Luckily it wasn't too meaty.

 

Hiding under the sausage is a piece of omelette ; 7 ; I love Japanese omelette.♥

 

I think this was a prawn?

  

I wasn't sure what this was either ;; It was all really good though!

 

The train was super smooth, so it was no problem to eat while the train was going along!♪ The scenery was lovely too, there was so much to see.^^ It probably sounds really cheesy, but I love seeing scenery I've never seen before! It's hard to describe but it's a really wonderful feeling.♪ I'll let you enjoy the scenery for a while ww

 

Pulling into Hakone-Yumoto station.♪

 

Once we were out of the station, we needed to head across the road to the bus stop. Here's the view from the bridge across the road!

It was a bit rainy, but it kind of added to the atmosphere! Travelling through mountains in light rain, it sounds pretty right?

 

While we were waiting for the bus, another Romancecar pulled in.♪

 

View from the bus stop number one♪

 

View from the bus stop number two♪

 

Mountains! I was really fascinated by the landscape because in my part of the UK, you can see for miles into the distance because it's so flat hah..

Our bus soon arrived, and the driver was really jolly! ww The drive through the mountains was great, it was amazing that the bus managed to go up and down such steep gradients and wiggle around narrow twisty roads! All of the stops on the bus sign were in Japanese, so I had the map on me with the Kanji so I knew what to look out for. Though it turned out that our stop was where other people were getting off too!

 

Here we are, Lake Ashi! 723m above sea level! From here you can get a ship to the other side of the lake. It's a shame it was so cloudy and foggy, you're supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji from here ahah..;; It made everything very mysterious though.

This ship! Isn't it majestic? Though we weren't going to be going on it just yet, we had a little exploring to do ww♪

 

 

There were plenty of people about, but it wasn't anywhere near as busy as anywhere we'd been in Tokyo. It was a nice break from it all! Plus I enjoyed being back in the countryside ;; 7 ;; 

 

Time to head to Hakone Shrine.♪ The Torii gate of Hakone Shrine is actually in Lake Ashi.

 

The shrine was just beyond those steps in the distance. 

As you walk up the steps to the shrine, there are lots of things set into the forest on either side.♪

 

Jen & I walking up the steps♪

 

 

Everything was amazing, it was so beautiful & peaceful to look around. After a while we started to head back towards the dock since we needed to get the next boat.

Though just before we went to the dock, there was something we needed to see.♪

 

Isn't it amazing? When we first got there, there was a little queue with people taking it in turns to walk down and get photos in front of the Torii gate.

 

 

 

My hat almost blew off into the water haha! I wasn't about to keep up the family tradition of losing things to waterfowl though ww

 

There was a lovely path leading through the forest and along the edge of the lake.♪

 

 

 

 

 

There were lots of lovely hydrangeas.♥ 

 

 

Time to for a boat trip! And just in time too! It had just started raining. ;;

 

 

It's the Torii gate we stood under earlier!

 

The weather got worse so it was really hard to take photos of the lake ;;

 

The other ship looks kind of mysterious though. c:

 

The ship's interior was pretty neat! Very western though, it felt a little odd in Japan ww

 

There's also Nelson to top it all off haha.

 

After the boat journey, it was time to get the cable car!! Ahh I was so excited for this, I love cable cars ww

 

Still rainy ww

 

Two of the ships side by side.♪

 

'Josh these aren't going too fast, do you think if I pushed you out you could catch up with us at the top? :D'

 

 

First stop → Ubako, which is 878m above sea level. We didn't stop here though, we continued up!

 

We spotted one of the ships!

 

The view was amazing!

 

Ooh okay. Suddenly creepy as we get higher up ahah ;;

 

Hello to Owakudani! 1044m above sea level, awesome!

 

Beyond these bushes was... some sort of misty void. OTL We were hoping to see the volcanic activity but it was way to windy & foggy, which created an amazing atmosphere but meant we couldn't see anything.

 

Josh in front of the void. (www)

 

Hmm... I wonder what amazing views I'll see through these binoculars?

 

Inside the visitor centre, there was a real Animal Crossing beetle.

 

I will hold my hands up and fully admit I'm completely ignorant as to what beetle this is. Sorry lil friend. OTL

 

From Owakudani, we got another cable car.♪

 

There was a little viewing platform at Sounzan station where you could see all the mechanisms work and stuff, interesting!

 

From Sounzan, we needed to get another cable car down the mountain.♪ It was really steep! Even the platform had quite a sharp gradient ahah.

Our stop was Gora, where we needed to take the mountain railway back to Hakone-Yumoto.♪ I'm afraid I kept dropping off to sleep during this. ;; o ;;'' The parts I saw though, were really pretty! The train zig-zagged down the mountain.

 

 

The last stop was Hakone-Yumoto, where we had arrived earlier that day.♪ Once we got there, we needed to get another seat reservation ticket. We decided to not get one when we arrived because we weren't sure what time we'd be getting the train back. ;; Since it was a little while before our train back, we had a little look around the shops at the station. There were lots of souvenirs and merchandise themed around Hakone and all of the different methods of transport ww

Here's our train back to Shinjuku. c: The sun was starting to set at that point.

 

Hello again Tokyo.♪ We were pretty hungry after exploring Hakone, so we went to the hotel to freshen up and then headed out for dinner.♪ We went to a place that Josh had spotted called 'Mr. Curryman' ww It was a little restaurant where you got a ticket from a vending machine with what you want to order on it.♪ The place itself wasn't particularly busy, so we just relaxed together. It was a pretty nice dinner.^^

  

There was a croquette curry! ;; 7;;♥ I was so happy ww A non meat option♥

  

Pickled ginger, shredded cabbage, and... macaroni? Yep! It seemed pretty random but gosh it was yummy.♪

 

The portion was pretty big, but was just what I needed.♪

 

Josh got a pork cutlet curry♪

 

Jen got beef curry♪

And so our day came to a close. It was really lovely. Like really really lovely. If you're looking for a day outside the big city and you want it to be tourist friendly (many of the signs & were in English) I'd say go for this.^^ It was fun to have such a neat variety of transport to get around too! If it was a nicer day, we would have explored a lot more at Owakudani but sadly there wasn't much to see with all the fog. >< Hopefully I'll get back there someday!

 

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed seeing Hakone!♪ The next destination is Yokohama!

Have a lovely day♥

Love, Eliza♥